Vamana Purana — Vamana's Birth, Shloka 48
Vamana’s Birth during Bali’s Horse-Sacrifice and the Mapping of Vishnu’s Sacred Presences
एवं कृतोपनयनो भगवान् भूतभावनः संस्तूयमानो ऋषिभिः साङ्गं वेदमधीयत
evaṃ kṛtopanayano bhagavān bhūtabhāvanaḥ saṃstūyamāno ṛṣibhiḥ sāṅgaṃ vedamadhīyata
[{"question": "How should ‘brahman’ be understood here?", "answer": "Brahman is a respectful vocative. In Purāṇic narrative it can address a Brahmin man, but it is also used toward a Brahmin woman in a deferential sense (comparable to ‘O venerable one’), fitting the husband addressing his wife."}, {"question": "What is the function of the locative absolute ‘gatāyāṃ rākṣasyām’?", "answer": "It sets the temporal condition: only after the Rākṣasī departs does the Brahmin safely reveal/hand over the child to his wife, marking a shift from danger to domestic reassurance."}, {"question": "Does this verse indicate divine intervention?", "answer": "Not explicitly. It narrates human action and timing. In many Vāmana Purāṇa tīrtha episodes, divine or tīrtha power is implied rather than named at every step; confirmation would require adjacent verses that mention a deity, vow, or the specific sacred site."}]
{ "primaryRasa": "shanta", "secondaryRasa": "adbhuta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
FAQs
It presents Bhagavān as the archetype of dharma: even as supreme, he models the social-religious discipline of brahmacarya and the authority of śruti, legitimizing Vedic learning as a sacred norm.
It indicates not only recitation of the Veda but mastery supported by the Vedāṅgas (auxiliaries such as phonetics, ritual, grammar, etymology, meter, and astronomy), i.e., complete traditional competence.
It is narrative in śloka meter but includes a stuti element (‘being praised by sages’), showing that praise accompanies and authorizes the Lord’s dharmic acts.